The Central Theme of A Midsummer Night's Dream

Abstract

Most readers of A Midsummer Night's Dream appear to be under the erroneous impression that the main events of the play take place on Midsummer Night. For this misapprehension Shakespeare himself is at least partiy responsible. He seems to have had a fondness for giving baffling or misleading titles to his plays. Why Love's Labour's Lost, we ask; why As You Like It? So it is with A Midsummer Night's Dream. I have never seen it remarked upon by a critic that the central incidents of the play actually take place on Walpurgisnight (the Eve of May-day), as is made clear by Theseus' remarks in Act IV, where he expresses his belief that the lovers have come to the wood early that morning to observe the rites of May-day (IV, 1, 135 ff.). Walpurgisnight is one of the two main nights of the year for witchcraft and every form of magic. The other is Midsummer Night (St. John's Eve). Both nights are therefore particularly well fitted to provide the time-setting for the supernatural events in the wood. Moreover, Midsummer Night is traditionally connected with flower magic; certain herbs and flowers gathered during that night were supposed to possess various wonderworking powers. This may well account for Shakespeare's use of Dian's bud and Cupid's flower instead of some other magical agent. Why, then, did Shakespeare call the play A Midsummer Night's Dream and not A Walpurgisnight's Dream? Partly, I think, because of the flower magic associated with Midsummer Night and also, perhaps, because of the various superstitions connected with maidens' dreams on that night. Shakespeare seems to be saying that the events in the wood that take place under the influence of the magic flower are like the dreams of lovers on Midsummer Night.